Happy Campers
UT students run a camp for disabled youngsters
E very spring, UT students from various departments sign up for Recreation and Leisure Studies 425. After some classroom training, the students spend April 13—20 at Clyde M. York 4-H Center in Crossville, Tennessee, where they help children with disabilities participate in horseback riding, canoeing, crafts, music, camping, cooking, hayrides, and socials.
Camp Koinonia is almost completely UT student-organized and funded. During the summer, UT students hold fundraisers, including a charity motorcycle ride and poker run. Campers pay $175 to attend, and the UT students pay $125 to take the associated course. Those monies help pay for the camp expenses.
“This is my sixth year as a counselor,” Sarah Owings said. “It wouldn’t be a spring semester for me without it.”
Owings, a graduate assistant in recreation and leisure studies, said she’s been amazed at how much she has learned about herself—and how much patience she has gained from working with the campers.
Camp Koinonia offers an experience as unique as its name both for the disabled youngsters who attend and for their counselors—UT students enrolled in a special Recreation and Leisure Studies class.
UT students also run Camp Koinonia II for disabled adults who are too old to attend the original Camp Koinonia. Along with social activities, Koinonia II focuses on skills young adults need, like job skills and independent living. Cost is $75, and the program runs from September 29 to October 1 at Jubilee Farms in Knoxville.
The word koinonia is Greek for “fellowship and caring community.” The name was chosen during a contest held during the camp’s first year at Virginia Tech, where it was administered by Dr. Gene Hayes, now a UT professor in exercise, sport, and leisure studies and administrator of UT’s camp.
—Kimberly Peer